Following the 2007 shootings that left 33 people dead, Virginia Tech expanded its emergency notification systems. Alerts now go out by electronic message boards in classrooms, by text messages and other methods. Other colleges and universities have put in place similar systems.
Virginia Tech officials said a police officer and another person were shot and killed on campus Thursday, and a suspect remained on the loose. During about a one-hour period, the university issued four separate alerts, followed by additional notifications.
The alerts went out even as university officials, including the university's police chief, were in Washington for the administrative hearing about 260 miles from the campus in Blacksburg, Va. The hearing ended less than an hour before the first alert went out. Ernest C. Canellos, an Education Department administrative judge, said he would later issue a ruling on the hearing about Virginia Tech's handling of the shootings more than four years ago.
Universities are required under the Clery Act to provide warnings in a timely manner and to report the number of crimes on campus.
Virginia Tech has appealed a $55,000 fine levied after the 2007 shootings because it says it acted appropriately based on protocols on campuses at that time. The Education Department says the university violated the law by waiting more than two hours after two students were shot in a dorm on campus in the 2007 shootings before sending an email warning. By then, student gunman Seung-Hui Cho was chaining the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more people and then himself.
Wendell Flinchum, the police chief, testified that there were no immediate signs in the dorm at that time to indicate a threat to the campus. He said the shootings were believed to be an isolated domestic incident and that the shooter had fled.
Flinchum said that conclusion was based on the isolated nature of the dorm room, the lack of forced entry and what the victims were wearing _ the woman in pajamas, the man in boxer shorts.
The scene, he said, did not suggest an ongoing safety threat.
"I don't believe we could have known that from what the scene presented," Flinchum said.
He said the dead woman's boyfriend initially was identified as a "person of interest." Police were shown a social networking site with the boyfriend holding guns, Flinchum said, and were told he usually dropped her off on Mondays. The shootings took place on a Monday.
The university faces charges of failure to issue a timely warning and failure to follow its own procedures for providing notification.
Parents of some victims have testified that they think their loved ones would have stayed away from campus if they had known of a threat.
James Moore, a department official, testified that even if it had been a domestic incident, there were enough signs that a gunman was on the loose to warrant quicker campus alerts by the school.
The 1990 Clery Act was named after Lehigh University student Jeanne Clery, who was raped and murdered in her dorm room by another student in 1986.
The maximum fine per violation under the law is $27,500. Institutions also can lose their ability to offer federal student loans, but that has never happened.
A gunman is on the loose on Virginia Tech campus after shooting dead a police officer and killing at least one other person.
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The campus is where 32 people died in a massacre four years ago.
The officer was gunned down after carrying out a routine traffic stop on campus.
The suspect then fled across a student car park where he shot dead another person.
Armed police raced to the campus and began hunting for the gunman - described as a white male, wearing grey sweat pants, grey hat with neon brim, a maroon hoodie and backpack - by going from building to building.
he shooting comes on the same day as Virginia Tech appealed against a £35,200 fine imposed by the Education Department in connection with the university's response to the 2007 rampage by a student gunman who killed 32 people and then himself.
The campus was immediately put on lockdown and students, busy preparing for their final exams, were told to stay indoors.
They tweeted: "A police officer has been shot. A potential second victim is reported at the Cage lot. Stay indoors. Secure in place."
The alert on their web page reads: "There is an active campus alert in Blacksburg. Everyone should seek shelter or stay where you are. Blacksburg Transit service is suspended until the alert is lifted."
On the school's web page, an alert marked 12:47 p.m. reads: "Reports of Shots Fired- Initial Description: Suspect described as white male, gray sweat pants, gray hat w/neon brim, maroon hoodie and backpack. On foot towards McComas. Call 911."
A picture posted on Twitter shows a body lying in the road covered with a white sheet.
One student was walking home when she came across the police officer's car moments after he had been shot.
She said: "As I walked past his car, police pulled up and when they opened his car door he just fell towards the ground.
"They tried to revive him. As soon as I saw his face I started crying.
"Then the other officers started yelling his name to get him to wake up and that's when it started to hit me."
"It's crazy that someone would go and do something like that with all the stuff that happened in 2007," said Corey Smith, a 19-year-old who was heading to a dining hall near the site of one of the shootings, but stayed inside after seeing the alerts from the school.
"It's just weird to think about why someone would do something like this when the school's had so many problems."
Harry White, 20, a junior physics major, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he was queueing for a sandwich at a Subway restaurant in a campus building when he received a text message alert about the shooting.
He said he did not panic, thinking instead about a false alarm about a possible gunman which caused the campus to be locked down in August. He used an indoor walkway to go to a computer lab in an adjacent building, where he checked news reports.
"I decided to just check to see how serious it was. I saw it's actually someone shooting someone, not something false, something that looks like a gun," he said.
Mr White said the campus was quieter than usual because classes ended yesterday and students are preparing for the start of exams.
A spokesman for Virginia Tech said: "Shortly after noon today, a Virginia Tech police officer stopped a vehicle on campus during a routine traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall.
"During the traffic stop. the officer was shot and killed. There were witnesses to this shooting.
"Witnesses reported to police the shooter fled on foot heading toward the Cage, a parking lot near Duck Pond Drive. At that parking lot, a second person was found. That person is also deceased.
"Several law enforcement agencies have responded to assist. Virginia State Police has been requested to take lead in the investigation.
"The status of the shooter is unknown. The campus community should continue to shelter in place and visitors should not come to campus."
In August the campus was put on lockdown after children attending a summer camp for middle-schoolers reported seeing a 'gunman'.
The alert was sparked after the children told police they saw the man quickly walking towards the volleyball courts, carrying what might have been a handgun covered by some type of cloth.
State and local police combed the area but said they could not find anyone matching their description.
Tags: Virginia Tech locks gunman kills 2, Campus 2 person killed at Virgina Tech , Virginia Tech shooting: brings back '4/16'
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